I'm new to the board and new to salmon/steelhead fishing, although not new to fishing in general. I'm originally from Iowa but have lived in Portland, OR for the past 4 years. I've been fishing mainly warmwater fish for the past 17 or so years with the occasional trout excursion in there. In the past few weeks I've caught a decent chinook and three good steelhead, and as so many people before me, I can say now that I've got the bug...bad. I've been making the 45 minute drive to the Clackamas River every few days or so, forsaking family and friends for the lure of the fish. I, now, have come to realize that these beasts are much more elusive than what my initial catch led me to believe. Since I'm self employed and have a wife in school and a toddler running around, I'd like to streamline my time and fish more productively.

I thought I had found the 'spot', but I feel I may have just happened upon it at exactly the right time. I haven't caught anything other than some small rainbows in the last three visits. I'm not impatient and am not greedy; I know that I have a lot to learn and am working on it, which is why I'm here. I caught all of the fish by drifting #3-4 gold Vibrax spinners and retrieving slowly, but have lost literally $30 in these in the four visits I've made to this river. Since I don't wish to lose anymore, I've decided to try other less expensive techniques. I've experimented with drift fishing corkies w/yarn, which I've heard is a preferred technique (the day I caught the salmon I watched two guys pull out 16 steelhead in 3 hours doing this), but I'm not sure I'm doing it right. I think I've got them bopping along with the right amount of weight, but how far off the bottom should the corkies be floating? I know that steelhead hang close to the bottom so I've been running them 12"-24" from the weight. I've also read that it's very hard to detect bites when fishing in this way, so I'm keeping my hooks sharp, but I'd also appreciate any other tips I can get. Oh, I'm using a spinning reel and a relatively stiff rod for this.

I'm also wondering what the best times of day to fish for steelhead are. I assume, as with most other fish, you're going to have the best luck around dawn/dusk (which is when I've caught ALL of these fish). Do I want to fish with darker lures the brighter it is? Is it still too warm to be hooking many of these fish in the midday hours? What colors do they prefer from your experience?

Any other tips and techniques will, of course, also be welcome and appreciated

Thanks, and I look forward to contributing to the board!

Welcome Fisthead.

Click here

This is an Oregon-based board much like this one. Many members there fish the Clackamas river, and you might be able to get some more specific info.

Good luck

Welcome here,I hope the zipperlip nazis don't object to you posting the name of a river with fish in it.

Hey, I didn't say WHERE on the river I caught them It's very big and extremly common knowledge that it's a good fishing river. Like any other river, you have to know where and when to go, what to use, and how to fish it. I have gotten lucky a few times and know it's going to be a LONG time before I know even part of the river well. I'm not too worried that people are going to learn any secrets from that post.

Thanks for the replies!

Hi Fisthead.....welcome to this board and visit often. If you haven't fished OlyPen rivers, that is also a great experience. Just ask Bob and friends.
Be sure to visit all the links on this site to gather great information. Lots of help here.
I am also a great follower of ifish.net and
help save the hatcheries.

Welcome Fisthead

I am also a PDX guy that reads and learns on this board. I fish the Clack, Lewis, Columbia, Willamette and Cowlitze more than the coastal rivers like the Trask etc. The nice thing about this BB is you don't have to search through thousands of words of banter to get what you are looking for. These guys on this board are pretty darn accurate and you don't have the pranksters who like to have fun posting the not so accurate reports or the guys who just want to argue about something. Hope you like it here as much as I do.

Hey BigShark & posh II, thanks!
I need to get into some other rivers around here. I've hit the Nehalem and some of the other smaller rivers out to the west, but only the Clack to the east. I'm sticking with it though to hone my skills because it's the only river I've had any luck with for bigger fish.

As for fishing WA rivers...if an out of state fishing license is as expensive as it is in OR, I'll have to wait until I understand steelhead and salmon a little better before making the investment.

Fisthead:

I live outside Portland and have been fishing the Clack for the past couple weeks.

Im thinking you have been fishing up at the Rivermill Dam or Dog Creek?

Anyway, you'll find good guys on both boards.

I can direct you to the Coho on the Clack where all you need are corkies and yarn. Its not real hot, but Ive been getting at least one decent fish per trip.

Where do you live in Portland? I usually have an open seat on my drift boat. Ill start hitiin it hard in October through March.

Welcome, Fisthead!

With a few exceptions for terminal fisheries, a "good" spot is defined by many factors, such as the bottom topography, water flow and clarity, water and air temperature, time of day and year, and plain ol' luck.

Some of those don't change much, some change in minutes or hours.

Sounds like your first trip the stars aligned for you...and haven't since.

The most satisfying thing about steelhead fishing is not figuring out the secret lure, secret fly, secret color, or secret egg cure (though they do affect your success). The most satisfying thing is learning why different conditions require different techniques, different areas of the river, and different times of day/month/year to hit a spot.

You can learn about baits, lures, and gear pretty simply. The rest requires either a very giving mentor and your undivided attention to what he/she is telling you, or just plain experience.

Most likely, it will require both.

It may seem difficult now, but if you stick with it and figure it out, you will appreciate every hookup you get all the more when you remember the time you put in learning all you needed to know to get that hookup.

I think it's like learning the value of money. It doesn't mean as much when it's given to you as it does when you work hard and earn it yourself.

I'd highly recommend, however, using this and other BB's, and fishermen you meet in the field, to "borrow" a few bucks from to start your "business" of learning to catch steelhead.

Who knows? If all goes well you may be able to teach them a thing or two in the future!!

Good luck, and...

Fish on!

Todd.

This is a quite a board. I expected those in the fishing community to be a lot more civil than most on BBs and am not disappointed!

Smoky, I'm up in North Portland in the Mock Crest area if you know where that is. I'll kick you an email about where I've been, etc. I've been fishing the banks exclusively so far and would love to get in a drift boat before the end of the year.

Todd, thanks for the info. I'm getting out as often as I can and learning a lot just from doing (even if it means losing $30 in spinners to do it). Something occurred to me that I've been meaning to ask; how do you determine the depth of the body of water you are fishing, especially if it's the opposite side of a quick moving river?

Thanks, all.

Fisthead,

It sounds like you're figuring out the depth the only good way, which is by trial and error. Unfortunately the trial involves hitting the bottom with your lure, and it's snaggy enough that it involves losing your spinners.

Try using some drift gear, perhaps with a slinky, and you'll get a better feel for the depth of where you're fishing without losing so much stuff.

Other than that, there's not really any other way to determine the depth, unless you can either see the bottom or can see the area during extremely low flows and remember what it looked like when the water returns.

Here's a trick I used on a few small streams when I was learning them back in high school. I'd float stretches of the streams in an inner tube in August, using a Polaroid camera to take pictures of deeper slots, big rocks, and permanent looking logs. Mark on the pictures where they came from. In the winter/fall go back and look at the area. You'll be surprised at how different it looks with water over it.

At least you'll know the relative depth of those spots and the breaks in structure that attract holding fish, and the runs that attract moving fish. Invaluable information.

Fish on...

Todd.